A former mayor of Tours has been found dead in a suspected suicide just as he was to go on trial over suspected kickbacks involving Chinese group weddings in the picturesque Loire Valley city.

A commercial van slammed into a truck in north-west China today, killing nine people and bringing the overall death toll to 56 in three big accidents on the country’s notoriously dangerous roads over the past two days.

Thirty six people died when a double-decker bus rammed into a tanker loaded with highly-flammable methanol in northern China early today, causing both vehicles to burst into flames.